Page 232 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 225
up four hits, two walks, three runs, and his rst major- league home run, to Joe Cunningham. He pitched much better in his next appearance (and rst start), on June 1 against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field. He threw a two-hit shutout to win 1-0. Alston made Williams a regular part of the rotation, and he nished the season with a record of 9-7 and an ERA of 4.01. In 119 innings he struck out 80 but walked 65, dem- onstrating the control problems that would plague him during most of his career.
Williams was a 21-year-old who proved he could win with a seventh-place team, and was considered a big part of the Dodgers’ future. His size and strength earned him the nickname Big Daddy. His penchant for throwing at batters to intimidate them earned another nickname: e Big Hurt. Williams t right in on a Dodger pitching sta that included two of the most intimidating fastball pitchers of all time—DrysdaleandKoufax.It’sasafebetthatbatters were not digging in deeply against the Dodgers. Several sources reported that Williams kept a booklet he called “ e List,” which was a list of batters he wanted to intimidate. When he hit a particular batter, he would make a mark in his list.
In Williams’s second year, the Dodgers won the World Series. Alston used Williams as a spot starter and reliever during the championship year, as Roger Craig took a spot in the rotation. Williams started 15 games and completed 8, nishing the year with a 5-5 record and an improved 3.97 ERA. He pitched more innings in 1959 than in 1958—1252⁄3 to 119—but given that Williams walked 86, Alston may have feared using him in some crucial situations.
When Alston did use him, in the most crucial game of the season, Williams won the pennant. e Dodgers nished the regular season tied with the Milwaukee Braves, pennant winners in 1957 and 1958. at led to a best-of-three playo that gave the Dodgers a chance to erase the memory of their 1951 playo defeat.
Williams didn’t pitch in the rst game, which Larry Sherry won 3-2. e second game was a reverse of the 1951 nal playo game. e Dodgers fell behind early
as the Braves knocked Don Drysdale out of the game in the fourth. e Dodgers tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the ninth o the best Braves pitchers, Lou Burdette, relief ace Don McMahon, Warren Spahn, and Joey Jay. Alston brought in Williams in the top of the 10th. He held the Braves scoreless for three innings, striking out three, until the Dodgers pushed a run across in the bottom of the 12th for the pennant.
Although Williams won the pennant winner, the only action he saw in the World Series was in Game Five. He pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Sandy Koufax in a 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox. e Dodgers won the Series in six games for their rst world championship in Los Angeles. In 2007 Williams told the Denver Post, “I guess the rst one always is special for a player. It was only my second year in the big leagues and I was wide-eyed and wondering what was going on.”2
Bill James called the 1959 Dodgers one of the weakest world championship teams in the history of baseball.3 e team fell to fourth in 1960 but Williams had his only All-Star season. He won 14 and lost 10 with an ERA of 3.00 and twice as many strikeouts (175) as walks (72). He hit two of his ve career home runs.
It must have been wonderful to be young and a Dodger in the movie capital during the 1950s and ’60s. In the book Pen Men Larry Sherry told of Williams’s love of the night life and a good practical joke. During spring training in 1960 Williams roomed with Sandy Koufax. Sherry said he hosted a poker game in his room one night that broke up late. at noise woke up manager Walt Alston just as Williams and Koufax were returning from a night of carousing. Sherry locked his door to pretend he was in bed. e curfew violations so upset Alston that he “smashed his World Series ring” on Sherry’s door banging it so hard.4
Another story about a prank that went wrong involved Frank Howard, who was a rookie in 1960. Williams was big at 6-feet-4 and 225 pounds, but Howard, at 6-feet-7 and 275 pounds, was massive. One day in Philadelphia, Howard wasn’t playing and wanted to